You might remember that I recently encountered a peculiar situation while chatting with CCP about virtual reality magic face-space portal EVE Valkyrie. Namely, the developer refused to confirm that the seeming PC shoe-in would even launch on PC at all, or even Oculus Rift for that matter. Madness, right? I’m leaning toward “yes,” given that CCP and Oculus are now walking down the aisle, eyes locked in the beautiful, undiluted sort of love that can only blossom from a co-publishing deal. You can be rest easy, ladies and gentlemen. Valkyrie is safe. It’s not dodging PC in favor of, um… what were its other options again?

“We’re thrilled to announce that the first Oculus co-publishing project is none other than EVE: Valkyrie, making Valkyrie an exclusive Oculus Rift launch title. We couldn’t be more excited for the future of Valkyrie, and we’re thrilled to help CCP bring the best possible made-for-VR experience to the Rift.”

Oculus is now looking into developing and publishing games in addition to crafting virtual reality hardware to make sure we never have to exist on this miserable mortal plane ever again. EVE Valkyrie is the first title on its roster, but almost assuredly not the last. Among others, John Carmack’s got something kicking around in the ol’ cybertronic brain oven. I wonder if it will have guns.

Probably not.

Both Oculus Rift and EVE Valkyrie are still without release dates, but at least we know they’re coming, uh, eventually. I’ve got an interview soon, so hopefully I’ll be able to use my formidable space politicking skills to find out a little more.

I’m sure they know the market won’t be very big in the beginning, and that their success is tied to that of the Rift. VR is a passion project for most developers at the moment. They want to make it a success. Not out of financial gain, but because it holds promise to change the game industry forever.

Devs like CCP and Valve can afford to dive into these ‘risky’ projects because they’re private companies with plenty of financial stability.

Cannot … identify … level of … sarcasm … must … reconfigure … detection grid!
Anyway, as soon as the Rift comes out (*hushed voice* please make it 2560×720, please make it 2560×720) I’m gonna have one. And if Valkyrie is a launch title I’m gonna have that too. Who cares about food and gas when you can have a space ship!

Why would people with regular monitors want to play? You would get absolutely destroyed in the same way mouse+keyboard players destroy players with controllers. Peripheral vision and depth perception in a space combat game is a huge advantage.

Ridiculous. TrackIR, decent view controls and proper padlocking gives you the same peripheral vision. And depth perception has literally never been a problem in any space game. Nobody has run into an object “because they thought it was farther away than it was”. Our brains have been coping with implied depth in 2D pictures for a long time.

But the Track IR is about half the price of the speculated $300 for the Rift while it does a lot less, so why would you want one. Even putting cheap small pivoted (to get the required vertical resolution) TFTs both left and right of your main monitor is cheaper while providing you with a better FOV. Track IR is a nice and sometimes useful gimmick, but plain higher FOV is what I’m looking for.

LOL, I perfectly understand poo pooing the current execution, but the premise? Really?

I’ve become unwilling to play many games without Track IR for years now, and combining that with the prospect of not needing to buy a bank of monitors or a single enormous one for better peripheral vision in game? Come onnnnnn. If that PREMISE can be executed well… I reiterate: Come ONNNNNNNNNN.

The premise has always been flawed. It’s not just technological problems which held VR back last time it was tried. It’ll be the same as the resurrection of the 3D movie; it’ll find a market, but the vast majority will pass it by,

I don’t want to spend every gaming hour locked into a sensory deprivation headset either, but within the confines of when I want to use it… why wouldn’t it be extraordinary?

Every time you play a computer game you are bombarded with a sense of unreal as you’re unable to interact with your environment as easily as a real person would in great part because of things like a lack of peripheral vision and clunky body control.

Sure, the current iteration looks very imperfect, but one day imagine feather light, selectively transparent screens, full motion head tracking, total peripheral vision. Why would that not be on everyone’s must own list?

Imagine playing a game where you can actually see something out of the corner of your eye without needing to turn your head. One day, and this is the only way to get at it without buying ridiculous wrap around projectors or so many monitors that you’re alone because your wife/girlfriend left you over your absurd expenditures.

Pipe dream? Probably for this decade, but the premise? I repeat: whats wrong with it?

The thing is I already get that feeling in some good games, and that doesn’t require shelling out tons of cash and shutting myself to things in front of my eyes.
They are trying to resolve the problem that some most games aren’t engrossing enough by throwing tech at it, and that doesn’t work. Not to mention if you use it in a majority of games, you eventually get a feeling of same old, same old.
I think the better thing was to have the Rifts in public places, like an Arcade. There would be no fatigue and the tech could be more impressive because it could be much more expensive.

Very excited. I feel like an ass for doing so little with my dev kit, but at least the people I’ve shown it to have gone “holyshitthisisthefuture” so I’m . . . evangelizing? Naw, doesn’t help, I should buckle down and actually make something already. Well, good to hear that one of the most promising tests of it is coming out as an actual game, at least!

Speaking of space combat and the Oculus Rift, I was going to check Hard Light Productions and see if there was any movement on Rift support for Freespace 2, but sadly they seem to be down at the moment.